The section offers professional services for both students and staff. The services are offered in the context of a healthy and safe environment for students and staff, whose mental health and well being are important to their success.

The section offers the following professional services:

Guidance

2.Counseling

This involves establishing a helping relationship between the counselor and the client in a trusting and holding relationship to help the clients gain insight into the issues affecting them e.g. issues of adjustment in campus relationship, stress management, men and women issues etc.

3.Psychotherapy Services

This is the establishment of a long term psychotherapeutic relationships between the counselor and the client to deal with major issues in life that may require the client to stay in a long term counseling relationship. The aim is to enable the client gain insight or cope with the issues affecting them so that they are able to be fully functional and adjust well to life. These issues include psycho trauma therapy, unresolved grieving, childhood abuses or neglect, personality disorders, drug abuse, addiction and other addictions like pornography, internet etc.

4.Group therapy

These are services offered to individuals facing similar challenges. Group therapy enables individuals in the same group to deal with issues in a universal way. The groups are open and individuals with similar issues can join any time. Some of the issues handled in group include crisis intervention, addictions, psycho trauma, loss and grief, abused individuals suicidality etc.

Groups are formed when clients indicate in the intake forms that they are willing to join a particular group or when clients make arrangements with the therapist and agree to form a group.

5.Workshops and Seminars

These include trainings and sensitization workshops that are tailor made to meet the needs of the clients. The upcoming trainings scheduled at an appropriate time include students Peer Counselors Training, Staff Peer Counselors Training, HIV/AIDS Awareness Week, and Self Esteem Building etc.

Peer Counselling

Peer Counselors are a group of students recruited and trained by Kisii University to counsel fellow students. They are trained in and are knowledgeable on, Family Life Education, Counselling Skills HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIS). As a result of their training and experience, Peer Counselors are often more highly sensitized to the needs of those around them and can therefore respond appropriately to those needs.

Peer Counselors are trained to counsel on a wide range of issues such as; relationship concerns, sexual harassment, rapes, child defilement, unplanned pregnancies, stress, financial and time management, room-mate problems, academic problems, religious issues, and alcohol and drugs abuse. They can also help student's acclimatize and adjust to their University environment, because they are always near them in the Residential Halls, Lecture and Dining Halls and around Campus

Alcohol, Drug and Substance Abuse

Research has shown that alcohol and bhang are prevalent drugs of abuse among University students. Certain factors like peer pressure, easy availability of drugs and substances, parental and societal influences, emptiness in life print and news media, pressure among many, play a leading role in drug abuse.

These substances have far reaching adverse effects on the physical, social, economics and psychological well being of students. Their use as an escape or ways of dealing with everyday life problems is a maladaptive way of responding to problems and pressure of growing up.

Students under stress and temptation to drink or take drugs are advised to go to the counselling office for assistance or seek the support of a peer counsellor on campus. These handle your problems with the confidentiality they deserve.

As an educational institution, Kisii University Counseling Section in collaboration with Alcohol and Drug Abuse (ADA) Committee is committed to providing an environment that enhances and supports intellectual, spiritual, social and cultural processes. Thus, the Administration, faculty staff, and students, have the collective responsibility of ensuring that the environment is conducive for a healthy intellectual and spiritual growth.

Illegal use of harmful and addictive chemical substances poses threats to the enabling educational environment. It is pertinent to alert the University community on the harmful effects of drug abuse and excess drinking of alcohol, their incompatibility with the educational mission and the legal consequences of use, possession or sale. The Universities’ drug policy is that any illegal use, possession, sale and consumption of controlled substances are prohibited both on campus and off campus.

Entitlement to Counseling

The counseling services are available to all students and staff at the university. The services offered are professional and confidential at the following sites-:

Main Campus - Rose Otieno & Zachary Kebati

Town Campus - Rhoda Auni

Twin Towers - Samson Barongo

Nyakongo Campus - Ruth Ayienda

Down Town - Ruth Ayienda & Rhoda Auni

Other Campuses

Nyamira - Ruth Ayienda

Ogembo - Samson Barongo

Keroka - Rhoda Auni

Kehancha & Isebania - Zachary Kebati

Professional Practice and Standards

All the counselors in the section are trained up to Masters Level and are committed to the competence through the ongoing professional development.

The counselors work within the designated time with regular supervision. Both students and staff are entitled to expect a high quality therapeutic counseling service which is:

Client focused
Abide by Kisii University policies and procedures.

The counselors observe the following professional ethics:

Confidentiality - clients are informed of the terms of counseling and limitations of confidentiality before therapy begin.
Respect for clients
Empathic understanding
They avoid causing psychological harm to clients
Observe unconditional positive regard.

Record Keeping

Confidentiality of all information kept about a client is of paramount importance. All counseling records are kept securely locked in counseling room.
The clients are given code names
Monitoring and evaluation is done using the clients’ codes.

Final Remarks

We the counseling team at the counseling section take this opportunity to welcome every body to seek counseling services. Our doors are open for you.

H.E The Commander In Chief President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta visited Kisii University on 22nd, March 2017 as He toured development projects in Gusii Land. The president was welcomed by the Kisii University Vice Chancellor Prof. John S. Akama, University... Read more